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Road closures for Easter races in Guernsey

Guernsey Athletics has its annual running
festival taking place this weekend. Police said two of the events would have some impact on the traffic movement.

5k:

The Guernsey Athletics 5km road run will take place on
Good Friday, starting and finishing at Footes Lane athletics
track, commencing at 10:00 and ending before 11:00

There will be no signed road closure for this event, but traffic may be delayed by police or marshals at junctions for 10 minutes as
runners pass through the area

10k:

The Guernsey Athletics 10km road race takes place on
Easter Monday on a new course, starting at Grandes Rocques at 09:30

Roads affected by this race will be the northern coast road and runners will pass through: L’islet, Les Amarreurs,
L’ancresse crossroads, La Moye, Bordeaux and Vale Castle. They will finish at Northside, opposite the former Quayside store

Northside and the Vale will be closed to through
traffic in both directions between about 08:00 and 11:00, with a diversion
passing along Trafalgar Road

Where possible, other road users are advised to
avoid both areas for the short duration of both events or face short delays.

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Jersey RPI increase 'not immune to impact of Brexit'

Rob England

BBC News Online

The chairman of Jersey's Chamber of Commerce has said the increase of 2.9% in the island's Retail Price Index was not "unexpected", and predicted further pressure on everyday costs throughout the year due to the "uncertainty" in the markets following Brexit.

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Whilst consumers may find this strange to blame Brexit, unfortunately, we are not immune from the impact, given the high level of imports, not just to the islands, but inbound to the UK too. Higher sourcing costs are being passed on from suppliers.”

Former crew member Paul Battrick wrote to the Council of Ministers asking for support.

Assistant Chief Minister Paul Routier said the council fully supported the lifeboat crew and he was arranging for Ian Gorst to meet with the crew. But he added it was "not for anyone outside of the RNLI to comment on the suspension of the coxswain while the appeal process is still going on".

The RNLI said the St Helier skipper was dismissed due to a "serious breach" of the RNLI's Volunteer Code of Conduct.

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Gipsy Moth IV to return for Jersey Boat Show

The famous yacht Gipsy Moth IV, in which Sir Francis Chichester sailed around the globe
in 1966, is returning to the 2017 Barclays Jersey Boat Show, a ports of Jersey spokesperson confirmed.

The vessel, celebrating
the 50th anniversary of its journey, is believed to have set a number of
world records, including the fastest round the world voyage by a small vessel,
the longest non-stop passage by a small vessel and the longest single-handed
passage.

Eileen
Skinner, founding trustee of the Gipsy Moth Trust, said the trust was "inviting the public
to experience his legacy first-hand".

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Guernsey FC player 'gutted' operation was delayed

A number of islanders are reporting delays to their hospital operations.

Guernsey FC footballer Jack Domaille injured his knee back in October, and has since seen his operation delayed by more than four months.

Mr Domaille is having to wait much longer than the NHS's standard 18-week-wait, which he said was taking a toll on him.

BBC

I was gutted. That's what I set my heart and my head on, that's what I was focused for. For that to be sort of taken away, it just feels cruel really. All the work that you put in. It will come, it's not for nothing, I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation at the minute."

Jack DomailleFootballer, Guernsey FC

In a statement, the Medical Specialist Group said there was a backlog while it awaited the arrival in June of a fourth orthopaedic surgeon.

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Idris Elba to DJ in Jersey

Alexandra Spiceley

BBC Radio Jersey, Reporter

BBC

Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) and DCI John Luther (Idris Elba)

Actor, musician and DJ Idris Elba will be performing a DJ set in Jersey this month.

Best known for his roles in the BBC One series Luther (pictured), as well as Stringer Bell in US hit series The Wire, as Heimdall in Marvel's Thor and Nelson Mandela in the film Long Walk to Freedom, he will be at Mimosa Bar in St Helier on 29 April.

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Asian hornets could 'hawk' outside bee hives

Members of the Jersey Beekeepers' Association have said they fear a local sighting of an Asian Hornet is evidence they're setting up colonies in Jersey.

Hornets are a serious danger to the local bee population and could pose a threat to the pollination of crops, according to the group.

The association's vice president John de Carteret says European bees aren't able to fend off attacks from the Asian Hornet.

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Later on in the summer, from about August right through until November, the worker hornets are coming out looking for proteins to feed their young and will 'hawk' outside a beehive by flying in front of it. The European bee hasn't evolved the defence that the Asian honey bee has, it just flies out singly to try and attack this invader... and the hornet basically grabs it in the air, bites its head off and takes the remainder back to feed its young."

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New waste disposal 'difficult to quantify'

A former States member is expressing her frustration at a lack of information in the government's new waste strategy.

St Peter Port Constable Jenny Tasker is concerned by the uncertainty around the future costs of disposing of household rubbish in bin bags.

Until then she says they can't decide what the best system of waste collection will be in St Peter Port.

To change from two collections to one would mean an alteration in the rounds, probably. If people have more rubbish on their one round then the lorries are going to wherever they have to go more often. So it's something that we can't actually quantify at this stage."

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'Christmas presents visit' drugs courier jailed for six years

BBC Radio Jersey

A Liverpool drugs courier, who flew into Jersey for a
one-night visit telling customs officers that he was delivering Christmas
presents, has been sentenced to six years In prison at Jersey Royal Court.

Andrew David Edwards Jones, 39, was found to be carrying
the equivalent of 280 doses of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.

Jones arrived in Jersey on 14 December on a flight from Liverpool. A cling-filmed wrapped drugs package in his
stomach was spotted after he was taken for an X-ray by customs officers who found traces of cocaine on his bags.

The drugs had an estimated street value of £2,800 in Jersey but could be purchased for between £250 and £500 in the UK, the court heard.

Animal charity warns of dangers after hedgehog dies in net

A local animal preservation charity has spoken out after a hedgehog died and three others were found tangled in discarded netting left in Bonne Nuit Bay in Jersey.

The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Society said this is a potentially fatal hazard for the animals.

Secretary for the charity Dru Burdon said: "All sorts of netting left on
the ground anywhere, at any time of year, are a potential hazard for
hedgehogs. It is not only fishing, net but garden netting can also cause
problems if left on the ground or if not pegged down and pulled taut.

"The finer the net, the more
damage can be done as the hedgehog struggles to get free".

Increase in fuel and light prices 'could be down to heating oil'

The cost of living in Jersey has risen by nearly 3%, the biggest annual rise in prices for almost five years.

One of the notable increases was in the cost of housing, motoring, fuel and light, statistics showed.

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We have a different distribution of the fuel and light group compared to the UK. We have a higher weight to domestic heating oil where prices increase over the year. When in the UK they have a greater weight to gas, rather than heating oil, and gas prices actually fell over the year."

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Antique pistol 'may take a year to clean up'

An antique pistol found on a Jersey beach and believed to be almost 375-years-old could take some time to clean up, Jersey Heritage says.

Amateur metal detector Tony Collins found the pistol while beachcombing at St Aubin's Bay in February.

Neil Mahrer, from Jersey Heritage, said it could take up to a year to clean because there was concern it could be damaged in the process.

Jersey Heritage

The trick is to do it very slowly and very carefully. What you've got is, as the iron parts of the gun start to rust under the water, the rust comes out and and forms a sort of a glue that binds all of the sand and stones and shells around it together, so we need to remove that.

More people to be prosecuted in court for driving with a phone

More people will be sent to court if they are found to be driving and using a mobile phone.

Jersey Police recently launched a campaign to clamp down on it after the number of people caught and prosecuted for using phones behind the wheel went up from 374 in 2015 to 444 last year.

To show a tougher approach to the crime, Jersey's courts will now deal with more of those caught using a mobile phone while driving.

Until recently, most people caught faced a Parish Hall enquiry.

There will be more people prosecuted in the Magistrate's Court for these kinds of offences. It's not just an error picking up the phone - your concentration, you may lose it for three or four seconds, and it could have serious consequences for a third party, even yourself."

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New buses 'will make a difference' on Guernsey's roads

New narrower buses that will be operating on Guernsey's roads next month will make a difference to road users, according to the States.

Deputy Barry Brehaut introduced the new WrightBus StreetVibe vehicles, which are 7cm narrower than their predecessors.

Mr Behaut said they would be more environmentally-friendly, and more suitable for Guernsey's roads.

If you look at the way we all drive, and the clearance between wing mirrors is minimal as it is, 7cm will make a difference. We have to have a bus which is robust enough to drive down the east coast in the winter and can deal with sea spray and things."

The crew said: "We are unable to
return to our roles at this time without Andy returning to his, and we await the
result of his appeal, hoping that a sensible outcome will allow both sides to
move forward for the good of both the RNLI and St Helier Lifeboat Station, and
hopefully we can return to the good relationship of old.

The RNLI said the St Helier skipper was dismissed due to a "serious breach" of the RNLI's Volunteer Code of Conduct.